Mythology Book

244244

AND THE SUN

BELONGS TO ONE

AND THE MOON

TO THE OTHER

THE HERO TWINS

H

un-Hunahpu and Vucub-

Hunahpu were the twin

sons of the divine match-

maker Xpiacoc and the midwife

goddess Xmucane. Hun-Hunahpu’s

wife was a deity called Xbaquiyalo,

and together they had twins: Hun-

Chowen and Hun-Batz. The twins’

boisterous ball-playing attracted

the anger of the Lords of Xibalba,

a deadly Underworld of disease

and decay.

The Lords lured the twins to the

Underworld to play the ball game

against them. Before the game

could take place, however, the

twins were subjected to a series

of challenges. When they failed,

they were sacrificed and buried

IN BRIEF

THEME

Sacrifice and rebirth

SOURCES

Popol Vuh, Anonymous,

mid-16th century.

SETTING

Earth; Xibalba (The Maya

Underworld), at the beginning

of time.

KEY FIGURES

Hun-Hunahpu Father of the

H e r o Tw i n s.

Xquic Moon goddess; mother

of the Hero Twins.

Hunahpu and Xbalanque

The Hero Twins; sons of

Hun-Hunahpu and Xquic.

Vucub-Caquix Macaw god;

father of Zipacana and

Cabrakan.

Hun-Came and Vucub-

Came The two highest death

gods of the Underworld.

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THE AMERICAS 245

beneath the ball court in the

Underworld. Hun-Hunahpu was

decapitated and his head hung

from a calabash tree as a warning

to those who might cross them.

Even after death, he retained his

potency. His spittle dripped into

the hand of the moon goddess

Xquic and impregnated her.

Xquic, fleeing her angry father

in the Underworld, sought refuge

with Hun-Hunahpu’s mother on

earth. Xmucane accepted her ❯❯

See also: The adventures of Thor and Loki in Jötunheim 146–47 ■ The epic of

Gilgamesh 190–97 ■ The legend of the five suns 248–55

Xquic picks Hun-Hunahpu’s head

from the forbidden tree, mistaking it for

a gourd, in this illustration by Gilbert

James for The Myths of Mexico and

Peru, by Lewis Spence (1913).

Xpiacoc

Hun-Hunahpu

Hun-Chowen

Xbaquiyalo Xquic

Xmucane

Vucub-Hunahpu

Hun-Batz

The Popol Vuh

The Popol Vuh provides the

fullest account of many key

Maya myths, and is perhaps

the most important sacred

Mesoamerican document still

in existence. It is divided into

three parts: the first concerns

the world’s creation, the

second focuses on the tale of

Hunahpu and Xblanque, and

the third depicts the founding

of the Quiché dynasty.

Drawing on centuries of

oral tradition, the Popol Vuh

was originally written in Maya

hieroglyphs from 1554–1558. It

was consulted whenever the

Lords of the Quiché gathered

in council (Popol Vuh means

“Book of Counsel”). After the

Spanish arrived in the early

16th century, they burned

Maya hieroglyphic books, but

the Popol Vuh survived and

was secretly transcribed into

Quiché, a Maya language,

using the Roman alphabet.

A copy of the transcribed

document found its way to

Chichicastenango, a town in

the Guatemalan highlands.

From 1701 to 1703, the parish

priest, Francisco Ximénez,

translated the text in parallel

Quiché and Spanish columns.

His manuscript remains the

oldest surviving written

account of the Popol Vuh.

Extracts from the Popul Vuh

manuscript, as translated by

Ximénez, are kept in the Rossbach

Archaeological Museum in

Chichicastenango, Guatemala.

The divine lineage

of the Hero Twins is

described in the first

half of the Popol Vuh.

Hun-Hunahpu and

his wife, Xbaquiyalo,

had twins, but he

conceived the Hero

Twins through Xquic.

Hunahpu Xbalanque

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